User blog:Khenmes/Review of Ordeal of Fire
Well much to my surprise and the surprise of most of this fandom I'm sure, the Ordeal of Fire episode aired earlier than expected on Nickelodeon (if there was news about this, then I just didn't see it). Overall, I cannot believe this, but I like the movie---ONLY because of Fire Lord. Now, when first seeing the design of Fire Lord (before the episode or trailers came out) you have to admit, it looked pretty unimpressive compared to Von Nebula's design. The thighs were really thin and most of his body is just from old parts of the 2.0 heroes, but much to everyone's shock he actually has depth in this movie. Like he is pretty much the ONLY villain with a decent past in HF so far. Von Neb's past never made any sense to me on why he cast his revenge on Stormer and Hero Factory. I mean, Ness DID run away so it is his own fault? Why is it Stormer's problem now? But Fire Lord, on the other hand, is a truly tragic villain as in the kind of sympathy we were supposed to get with Von Noob. While Vonny had EVERY opportunity to kill Stormer and Furno (or at least trap them since this is a kids' product) inside his OWN blackhole, he just waits like an hour before even confronting Stormer. Fire Lord, on the other hand, wastes no time in beating the crud out our favorite veteran hero. This villain is aware of his own insanity but takes this news rather calmly. Though he isn't completely insane, he just has an addiction problem. If anything, Ordeal of Fire should have focused EVEN more on Fire Lord, but I was extremely happy with nearly every scene he was in. After gazing at the awesome that is this villain, let's look at the heroes. Ironically this movie is about upgrading to 2.0, but the character types were severely downgraded. While Furno, Breez, and Surge virtually didn't have any character in the Rise of the Rookies movie, they REEEEALLLLY lost what little they had in Ordeal of Fire. As a girl, I am insulted at Breez's comments about mistaking the warning "get down" as a dance form, or that "is green still my color?", and especially that nearly all of her jokes were about being "her own woman." Speaking as someone who knows feminism, this is not it. While I do not expect Hero Factory to be this deep, dark and well-thought out story like Bionicle was, I certainly didn't expect such a backwards character. For all you potential writers out there, being "female" is not a character type nor is it a personality trait. Even Furno acted far more 'kiddy' than usual with his extra cheesy lines with a side of more cheese. Now normally I like cheesy stuff, but this was just awful. It is especially tragic considering I kinda liked Furno in Rise of the Rookies, but now they just made him look stupid. Albeit I do not blame Furno for doubting Breez's competence as a hero since anyone who mistakes "get down" as "let's boogie" should be taken out of the army immediately. And I'm not even touching Surge's "oh hey guys, I just escaped and now I'm here again" little scene because it was the epitome of lazy writing. Still, despite these faults, I do like the movie for two reasons. One of them is Fire Lord and the other is the new filming direction this animation company is going for. As a professional artist, I have to appreciate the genuine effort in animation that was NOT at all present when they worked on Bionicle: Legend Reborn and Rise of the Rookies. Finally, we get interesting camera angles and close up shots....oh how I love those close up shots. Fire Lord's minions also were predictably all idiots (or didn't speak at all). Seriously I could have bet money that Lego was going to do that again with these guys. Who want's to bet that Witchdocter is going to be the only interesting villain in his group? Nex and Evo.....while they kicked serious butt, didn't have much else going for them. Oh well, I still like Fire Lord. Category:Blog posts